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The Connecticut Network for Legal Aid site -- www.ctnla.org -- is the result of a statewide initiative to provide online guidance and information to low-income residents. The site features self-help guides to immigration and family law, links to a legalese dictionary, and a directory of phone numbers for various non-profits and social services.

"We can't provide a lawyer to every low-income resident who is being evicted or needs a restraining order," New Haven Legal Assistance Association Deputy Director Susan Nofi-Bendici said. "The idea of the site is to give them the tools and the skills they need so they can represent themselves effectively."

Created at the nonprofit New Haven Legal Assistance Association, the website provides basic forms for civil actions, allowing visitors to get paperwork to file everything from appearances to withdrawals. Self-represented parties can find most of the forms and the same guidance at the Judicial Branch's Court Service Centers found in 13 state courthouses.

Last year, nearly 270,000 people sought advice from Court Service Centers, Manager Krista Hess said. The demand on the service centers has grown in the past five years, especially during 2008 and 2009, when the housing market collapsed and sent many into foreclosure. Some of those families couldn't afford a lawyer, much less their mortgage.

From 2005 to 2009, the number of self-represented parties in civil lawsuits more than doubled, rising from 12,356 to 26,252. The number of self-represented parties in family court saw a 35-percent increase during the same time period, according to Judicial Branch data.

The learning curve is steep for the influx of self-represented parties.

"It's the unknown," Hess said of legal actions. "It's legal jargon that's unfamiliar to them. It's intimidation. You walk into a courthouse and it's not for a good reason. The hardest thing is fear of the unknown."

The goal of the Court Service Centers is to "demystify the legal process," Hess said. The goal of the Connecticut Network for Legal Aid is the same.

"Many people have to go to court alone and it can be very confusing and scary," Nofi-Bendici said. "Very often they can't make their cases as well as they should be able to."